Jabberwocky - part 2 - Mind-Rape

"All right," said Blake, raking weary hands through his curly hair.
"We'll try it one more time. Avon, this time, you take Tarrant's
position."

Avon and Tarrant obediently
switched places, the pilot relinquishing his console to Avon who sat
down and let his fingers hover expectantly over the
controls.

"Link up," Blake
instructed.

Avon only looked at him. His face
was scornful and rigid, but when he spoke, he sound almost defensive.
"Blake, you know that is
impossible."

"Is it? Tarrant managed
it."

"Tarrant's piloted this ship in
linkage
before."

"He can't do it right without
physical contact," Dayna replied. "I can manage it in the weapons'
position, but I'm not sure I can do it elsewhere, and I think you're
expecting too much of us, if you keep switching us
around."

"Dayna's right," agreed
Soolin.

"l don't think so. It's just that
we aren't used to linking with Jabberwocky yet without Cally boosting.
We've got to let him do his work, not block
him."

"I should think that would be
impossible, Blake." Avon removed himself from the pilot's position and
returned to his own, the one that controlled computer linkages, the
detector shielding and the force
wall.

Cally rose from her seat on one of
the couches at the front of the flight deck. "Avon, you have linked
before. Why should this be
different?"

Cally was still regaining strength
after her injuries on Terminal, though she was far better than she had
been at first. Blake was not yet fully recovered from Gauda Prime but
he was improving daily and Hugh had said he should be fit for action
within the
week.

Avon gave Cally an unfriendly
look. "Perhaps it is different because in past linkages, there had
been physical contact. You are the only telepath on
board."

"But it's not like that, Avon,"
Vila interrupted. "Jabberwocky's like a telepath himself, and he'll do
all the work. You have only to let
him."

Avon remained sceptical.
"Obviously it doesn't work that way, Vila," he pointed
out.

"But it should," Jabberwocky
remarked. "You should be able to manage it, Avon. It's true you have
high walls, but after all, you're my father, and you should understand
how I work better than anybody but
Cally."

"For the last time, I am
not your father, and I would be gratified if you would refrain
from that form of address in
future."

"Or you'll blast me?" Jabberwocky
chuckled in that disconcertingly human way of his. "Wrong, Avon. I
could force linkage with you, but I won't. Think about it, my friend.
That's a part of your programming. You must have expected that we
would meet one
day."

"It was my original
intention."

"But it's not your present one?
I'm really crushed." Jabberwocky had a lamentable tendency for
colloquialism, as far as Avon was concerned. Jabberwocky could be as
precise as Orac when called for, and he was more formal while
performing manoeuvres, as he would be in battle. But he was also
programmed - if that were the right word, thought Avon sceptically -
to interact with the crew in a relaxing and personal manner. Avon
found it
disconcerting.

"Avon, I could assist you," Cally
said softly, coming to stand facing him. "I could transmit the initial
contact with Jabberwocky to
you."

"No, Cally," Blake objected. "If
we can't all tie in with Jabberwocky for our assigned functions then
we can't make this work. I don't expect it to come easy, Avon. It's
going to take a lot of effort. We didn't learn to handle
Liberator in a few days. It took experimentation too. Right
now, without the linkage, we can handle the ship adequately, but it
will boost us and make us that much more efficient if we link up.
Isn't that right,
Jabberwocky?"

"Right,
Blake."

"So I want to keep at it until
we've got it
down."

"You've got a century or two to
spare?" Tarrant asked sceptically. "We're human,
remember?"

"So was Jabberwocky. So is
Avon."

"Are you sure of that?" Vila
asked, ducking behind Hugh as he
spoke.

Avon threw a scornful glance at
Vila, but he did not object because they were the very words he would
have chosen to use himself. He knew, though he chose not to make it
public, that it was his reluctance to open up to Jabberwocky that was
preventing this test from succeeding. He could join the link when
touched, but there was a portion of his mind that would not let
himself yield without that impetus. Though he had tried to do it, he
had also 'choked up' whenever he
started.

As if he realized that - which he
probably did - Blake said, "All right, then there's no hurry. Tarrant,
take back your station and we'll try it with you there. After that,
we'll let Hugh
try."

Hugh had initially attended the
Federation Space Academy to train as a pilot, and while nowhere near
the pilot Tarrant was, he knew enough about Federation ships to be
able to handle the task competently. He said now, "I'm willing to try
it,
Blake."

Once Tarrant was in his position
and Hugh had changed places with Avon, who retired to the couch beside
Soolin, Blake closed his eyes, feeling his way into the link he held
in his brain with Jabberwocky. He still looked uncomfortable sometimes
in such a position, but he was getting better at
it.

"All right, Tarrant, link," Blake
ordered.

Tarrant hesitated, then he went
into link mode while Avon watched sourly. Pulling his hands back from
the controls, Tarrant was now seeing the readouts inside his head and
interpreting them almost as rapidly as Jabberwocky did. It was the
ship's responsibility to focus out non-essential stimuli, to keep the
pilot-link's brain from being burned out by an overwhelming influx of
data, and to sort through everything available and present what was
needed to Tarrant instantaneously enabling him to interpret it without
hesitation. Then he could manoeuvre the ship through the link without
having to resort to the longer process of pushing buttons and handling
levers or even speaking orders into the computer/receptor. Once
accustomed to such control flexibility, the pilot could outmanoeuvre
any other ship in existence, except for another mindship. And since
Jabberwocky was, so far, the one and only such ship, once the
crew learned to utilize it to its full capabilities, they should be
able to take on any ship in the entire Federated
Worlds.

Jabberwocky now had the
rudiments of a functioning teleport as well. Avon had worked at it
with Orac and Jabberwocky, and when Blake had come, he had joined in
as soon as he had recovered enough from his wounds to be allowed up
long enough to be some use. At present, the teleport only wanted fine
tuning and testing before it was pronounced fit for use. Then, given
the adaptation of a photonic drive, Jabberwocky's dream to complete
his modifications, the ship would be ready to confront the
Federation.

Avon grimaced at the idea.
Fighting the Federation was not at the top of his list of priorities,
but even he was willing to admit that he did not like the Federation,
and he had agreed to Blake's plans. Someday, perhaps, he would teach
himself how to link properly, and then it would be his ship, as
it was obviously meant to be. Until then, he could endure Blake's
plans. That he was glad to have Blake back with them again was
something he had admitted with extreme reluctance, and then only to
himself, though he was reasonably certain that the others knew.
Sentiment could not be allowed to interfere with his plans, however.
This morning's failure had set him back, it was true, but his time
would come, and this would be more his ship than Liberator
could have ever
been.

Tarrant took the ship through a
series of complex manoeuvres, and Avon could see that Blake, in his
control position, was linked with him and perhaps making suggestions
for Tarrant to carry out, though the bulk of the display would come
from Tarrant's piloting skills. In Avon's position, Hugh was linked
too, and, curious, Avon got up and went round to peer over Hugh's
shoulder, watching the force wall come on and shut down again without
Hugh lifting so much as a finger. The detector shielding ran through
its paces too, with a readout visible on the screens, though Hugh
would be receiving it directly inside his head. Avon was gratified to
see that his alterations to the shielding were as effective as he
could have
hoped.

Now the weapons test was
proceeding, and Avon turned to look at the main screen as the small
asteroids they had agreed to use as targets for testing began to
detonate before his eyes. Spinning around in surprise, he saw Dayna,
an expression of pure bliss on her face, drawn into the linkage
despite her scepticism, running through every weaponry test she could
think
of.